


Undercover

by radiocabel



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkwardness, Bad Flirting, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Romance, Slice of Life, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 07:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13118778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiocabel/pseuds/radiocabel
Summary: Jack Savage, the world's worst secret agent, has a mission. Can he overcome life's obstacles and complete his mission, or will he fail miserably?





	Undercover

"Alright, Jack. You got this. Eyes on the prize, the big prize, the biggest prize..."

Jack Savage was never one for odd-jobs, too much inconsistency for not enough pay. Being a secret agent was never going to be a stable career anyway, but he picked his battles. Somehow, walking dogs for less than minimum wage didn't seem to be what he had in mind. But hey, if it paid well, he didn't care all that much. 

This time he had something a little more his style: eavesdropping. He was instructed to spy on a target at a restaurant and record their every word. He wasn't told why he was doing it, he knew better than to ask irrelevant questions. Money's money, and that's the only language he speaks. Anything else is just fluff that gets in his way. 

Jack readjusted his bow tie, completing his stylish-yet-very-undercover "James Prawn"-esque appearance. Ladies loved tuxedos, and who was he to disappoint a cute lady? He had a whole collection of tuxedos, depending on the day of the week, his mood, the weather, wind direction... He had a lot, okay? Licking his hand, Jack ran his palm over the top of his head in one, smooth motion, causing some hairs to stand on end. 

Jack was always a fan of how he looked: light gray fur with darker gray stripes that ran horizontally along his cheeks and ears. His light blue eyes just added to his 'cute but also potentially menacing' aesthetic that he had spent months perfecting. Maybe there should be a shorter word for 'cute but also potentially menacing'. Maybe something like... adorabloodthirsty? Yeah, that's pretty good, he thought. Definitely not dumb. Nope.

 _Ladies love a disheveled man_ , Jack thought. Was this enough? Maybe he could loosen his bow-tie a little, or maybe he could unbutton the top two buttons on his dress shirt? He could also leave his shirt untucked! The possibilities were endless. Then again, maybe ladies only loved _slightly_ disheveled men. It was a delicate art. 

Once he was satisfied with his appearance (he didn't bother dirtying himself), Jack took a deep breath as he stared back at his reflection. "Now _that's_ the look of a smooth talker if I ever saw one," he said to himself. Thankfully, he lived alone, so nobody could witness his embarrassing habits. Well, okay, that wasn't entirely true. He _did_ have a neighbor who could hear him sometimes. Most of the time. A lot of the time. Jack quickly learned that whispering was the way to go if he wanted to talk to himself.

Jack exited his bathroom, freshened up and ready to go. Glancing at the clock on his wall, he saw it was time to leave. Not wanting to get caught up in any sort of traffic, Jack exited his small (cozy, he insisted) apartment. As he stepped outside, he realized it was raining. Unfortunately for him, it was far worse than just a drizzle; in fact, saying it was 'raining' was being generous. It was more like a 'heavy downpour'. Jack quickly ran back inside his apartment lobby after spending less than half a second in the streets.

The restaurant he was supposed to go to was too far to walk, especially at night in Zootopia. It was only about eight blocks, but Jack couldn't risk ruining his tux. He loved this one most of all! 

From the front window, Jack could see dozens of animals of all shapes and sizes scurrying to the nearest shelter from the rain. Many ran into apartment complexes, which lined the entire road as far as Jack could see. After all, he _did_ live on Apartment Road in downtown Zootopia. 

Speaking of downtown, Jack wondered how he would get to the restaurant now. He had planned to walk, but that clearly wasn't happening tonight. Maybe he could call a cab, but that costs money. Precious, beautiful money. When he weighed out the costs of a taxi compared to the drycleaning for his tuxedo, he soon realized the cab would be the better option. 

With a sigh, Jack pulled out his smartphone and dialed the local cab company. After a brief argument, he hung up and waited for the cab to arrive. Jack stared out the window, watching the rain. "The rain's coming down like... like... Nevermind, I'm bad with metaphors." Jack was also bad at remembering the difference between a metaphor and a simile.

"The rain falls like tears from an angel," a voice finished from behind.

Jack spun around and saw a fox woman standing behind him. At first, Jack stared at her in awe. Wow, she was... cute. Very cute. Her fur was as white as snow, her nose as black as a rock on a snowman's face. A warm smile radiated off of her, warmer than the cold and soft color of her fur. She must have been about twice his height, not counting his ears. 

Jack suddenly realized she had heard him talking to himself. He chuckled nervously as he tugged at his collar. "That's pretty good," he said.

"Thank you. I majored in creative writing in university, minor in poetry." The woman responded. 

"Cute. I-I mean, uh, that's nice." 

She giggled. 

A blush washed over his face like a bucket of water. If Jack had any weakness, it was pretty women. "What's your... what's your name?"

"Skye," she said. 

Great, Jack thought, she was a walking metaphor. Simile. Whatever. Snow, rocks, sky, what else did she have going for her? Jack hadn't looked closely at her eyes, but he could guess they were as blue as the ocean. Hey, that was pretty good! Maybe Jack was more of a poet than he thought. The only color he cared about for himself is green--money. "Cute name."

"Thank you. Are you ready, Mr. Savage?" Skye asked.

"Ready for... for what, exactly?"

"Your taxi is here," she pointed out the window at a taxi idling near the apartment. "I'm your driver."

Oh. Jack was too smitten with her eyes to notice she had a nametag on her blouse. Now that he thought about it, he could've been a lot suaver if he just looked down earlier. Jack thought about how cool he would've looked if he could sneak a glance and call her by her name all seductively. Man, so cool. "Oh! Oh, oh," was all he could manage.

Skye giggled. "Do you need an umbrella?" she asked, reaching into a nearby umbrella bin. 

Jack stared at the umbrella in her hands. It had bunny prints all over it. He also noticed she was wearing an intricately designed silver ring. It suited her nicely, he thought. "Yute." 

"Yute...?"

"Oh, I uh... I meant cute. But I also said yes, too. Ahah..." Jack could feel sweat pooling at the small of his back. 

Skye giggled as she leaned forward, opening the front door. The wind roared, forcing it all the way open. Jack grabbed the umbrella and opened it (outside, of course) as he walked towards the taxi. Skye followed close behind, carrying her own umbrella. Once the doors unlocked, Jack climbed into the passenger-side rear seat while Skye climbed into the driver's seat. 

Looking around the taxi, Jack could see it was well maintained. It was way cleaner than his apartment ever was, even when he first started renting it. The only complaint he had was that there were no rabbit-sized seatbelts, so he had to suffice on fox-sized ones, which were a little too big. That was okay, though. Jack loved to live a little dangerously. 

"To Inocencio's Restaurant, yes?" Skye asked as she adjusted her rear-view mirror.

Jack was too busy staring at Skye's eyes through the mirror. 

"Mr. Savage...?" 

"Oh!" Jack shook his head. "Oh, uh, yes. Yes." 

Skye nodded gently. "Right away, sir." 

The taxi pulled away from the curb. Jack knew he'd have some downtime, so he thought about how cool he'd look being undercover at a restaurant. Maybe he could get a newspaper to cover his face while he eavesdropped? Yeah, that's awesome, he thought. Maybe some sunglasses for good measure? Can't go wrong with those, even if it's nighttime. And raining. 

"Do you go to this place often, Mr. Savage?" Skye piped up, interrupting his train of thought.

"I've never been; It's a little rich for my blood."

"So why are you going now? Special occasion? Promotion? Just felt like?" Skye asked.

"Uhhh," Jack scratched the back of his head. Should he lie? Well, duh, he thought. That's the whole point of being a secret agent. He needed an expertly crafted lie, something subtle yet believable, something boring to keep people from asking too many questions. "I'm... going... place."

"You're _what_?"

"I-I mean, uh... I got promoted!" Jack said confidently. "Yeah, I, uh, got promoted from, uh, my computer... repair... job." 

"Oh, congratulations!" Skye grinned as she glanced back at her mirror. "What do you do usually?"

Jack had no choice but to roll with the story he was weaving. "I fix computers. Like, if a customer brings in a broken computer, I fix it." Jack had no idea how to fix a computer at all, but he figured he could fake it. After all, how hard could it really be?

"Oh, that's exciting," she said. "I used to tinker with computers myself. Tell me, what do you think about the recent surge in cryptocurrency and how that's affecting GPU prices? Do you get any customers who bring in fried computers? You know, like from kitcoin mining?"

Jack had no idea what kitcoin was. Was she making fun of him? Did she not believe him for a second and was trying to confuse him so he'd sound stupid? Well, he'd never allow that to happen. "All the time," he said triumphantly.

"Wow, some people really don't know what they're doing, huh?" 

"Yeah. I gotta clean other peoples' messes all the time. I'm the only guy I know who can fix any computer, no problem." Jack said.

"Maybe I should bring mine in then. I wanted to de-lid my CPU but wasn't confident to do it myself. Didn't want to break the dye, as I'm sure you know. You sound reasonably confident, so I think you can do it." Skye said.

Jack needed a minute to think about what exactly Skye just said. There were a lot of words she said that he didn't know at all. At this point, he was getting increasingly concerned she was just toying with him. Maybe he should've spent more time thinking of a clever cover story than staring at a mirror. "I can do that," he said.

The taxi weaved in and out of traffic, which had slowed to a crawl from the downpour. Jack stealthily pulled out his phone and began to look up words he didn't know, like de-lid, or CPU, or dye. Also, what the _hell_ was a cryptocurrency? Some kind of cold money? That sounded nice right about now: some cold, hard cash. 

As Jack browsed the web, he learned a thing or two about computers. Huh, fancy stuff. Maybe he should change careers? Too late now, he thought. Once a secret agent, always a secret agent. Jack put away his phone and stared out the window once again. The taxi had been stopped for what felt like half an hour. Was he going to be late? He hoped not. After glancing at his GPS app, he noticed they'd be at least another twenty minutes. 

"This traffic is crazy," she said. Skye leaned her head to the side, trying to see past all the cars. 

"Am I gonna be late?" Jack asked.

"Hopefully not. I don't think we'll be stuck for too long." She said, leaning back in her seat. "Sorry about this."

"Hey, not your fault. Unless you control the rain." Jack paused. "You don't--you don't actually control the rain, do you?"

"I wish I did, Mr. Savage." 

The car inched forward, crawling across the road like a caterpillar. Resting his elbow against the door, Jack found himself staring into Skye's rear-view mirror. God, she was pretty. He began to entertain the idea of inviting her to dinner while he did his secret agent stuff. Would she notice? Hopefully not. They could sit at a table and Jack could pretend to listen to her while he eavesdropped on his target. That would be _so_ cool. 

"Hey, Ms. Skye?" Jack asked.

"Yes, Mr. Savage?"

"Are... are you, you know... Busy?"

"Busy? I'm your driver."

"Well I mean, like, are you busy later? I can't imagine many people needing a cab in the rain like this."

"Actually, taxi occupancy rates increase by almost five percent when it rains, but taxi availability drops about seven percent. More people are in cabs, but there are far fewer available for others."

"You're just full of fun facts, aren't you?" 

"I like to read those clickbait articles. You know the ones, '7 weird things about living in Zootopia', or 'You won't believe what happened in Little Rodentia'. That kind of stuff." Skye looked amused.

Hey, wait a second. Did Skye just deflect his attempt to ask her on a date without him even realizing it? Man, Jack thought, she was good. Too good. Maybe _she_ should be a secret agent. Nah, too obvious. Everyone would suspect the smartly dressed and even smarter brained Skye to be a secret agent. Nobody expects a bumbling idiot in a tuxedo to be a secret _anything_. Whether or not Jack's confused stammering made him a bumbling idiot or a master tactician had yet to be seen. 

"Hey, here's a weird thing: I'm going to the restaurant by myself."

"Not really weird, but okay." Skye shrugged.

"You won't believe what happened in a taxi cab in downtown Zootopia!" 

"Are... are you quoting the clickbait articles I read?" Skye giggled. "Alright then, tell me what happened, Mr. Savage."

"A young man, Jack Savage, age twenty-something, asked the beautiful Skye... something to accompany him to Inocencio's. You, uh, won't believe what she said next!"

"No."

"Oh." Jack blushed awkwardly for a minute. Did he really think that would work? Maybe he'd be better off flying solo, anyway. People can just drag you down. 

"It's pretty rude to try and ask someone on a date while they're working. What if I asked you on a date while you were repairing my computer?" Skye asked.

Jack felt like the taxi began to close in on him like a snake coiling its prey. Everything felt uncomfortable, causing him to sweat nervously. "I, uh... Sorry."

"Let's try this again," she said, clearing her throat gently. "Mr. Savage, or should I say, Jack? I would like to ask you on a date to Inocencio's."

"What."

"I said it's rude to flirt with someone while they're working, but you aren't working. Therefore, it's fine for me to make my own moves."

Oh, she was _good_. Like, really good. The reptilian taxi released its coil around his neck, allowing him to exhale gently. He didn't even realize he was holding his breath for so long, did he forget to breathe? She was certainly playing him like a fiddle, that much was clear. Maybe he should keep her around, she could probably show him a thing or two and be really cute while doing so. Wow, she was so pretty and charming. "Okay!" Jack said entirely too enthusiastically. 

Skye giggled. "It's a date, then."

The cab finally managed to clear all the traffic leading up to Inocencio's restaurant. There was a small crowd gathered at the front entrance. Jack was the first to exit the taxi with his umbrella, Skye following closely behind. She walked towards him, snatching the umbrella from his short, stubby arms and held it above her head, keeping them both dry. 

"Long line to get in, huh?" Jack muttered to himself. 

"I've never seen this place so crowded before," she said. 

"Me either," he said.

"I thought you've never been here before?" Skye asked.

"Oh, uh, I haven't." 

"Oh, I see. You must've been around here before, but never went in. Right?" 

"Y-yeah! Exactly." Jack lied.

The crowd showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. Everyone gathered into a neat and orderly line, cordoned off with a velvet rope. An awning slowly unfurled from the top of the restaurant, shielding the soon-to-be patrons from the rain. It was tall enough to accommodate most animals, except the giraffe couple. Then again, they were used to bending their necks to get to places. 

Jack jumped and grabbed Skye by the hand, dragging her along to the back of the line. Once they were under the awning, Skye shook the umbrella dry and stowed it away. 

"How long do you think it'll take, Mr. Savage?" Skye asked.

"I have no clue. Also, please, call me Jack. All the ladies do." Jack said.

"Alright, Mr. Savage."

The line stood completely still. Jack was beginning to wonder if today was his day. First the rain, then the traffic, and now a line? What else could possibly go wrong? 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Savage, but I don't think I have the time to wait all night for a table," Skye complained. 

"What? Oh, no, no, no. Come on, you said you'd join me! The line's probably gonna move right now, just watch!" Jack pointed at the people in front of him. Nobody moved. "Any second now! Aaaaany second now. See, look! They moved!"

"That man just coughed."

"Close enough! The line's making progress, Skye. Just a little bit longer!" 

Skye looked pained. Was something bothering her? "I'm sorry, Jack."

Jack could see a little hint of... disgust? He couldn't really tell, but something was bothering her. Wait, did she just call him Jack? "Skye..."

Skye leaned down and picked up Jack with both hands, grabbing him by the waist. She hoisted him up to her eye level and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before setting him back down. "Don't worry. I'll see you around."

"Huh?" 

It didn't take long for Skye to unravel her umbrella. She walked out from under the awning into her cab once more before driving off. All Jack could do was watch her leave. Somehow, he was sad. He had only just met her, yet she already made such an impression on him. What did she mean by 'see you around,' though?

Jack reached into his pocket and noticed something poking out. As he reached in, he realized it was some sort of paper. A business card? He pulled it up to his face and read it to himself.

_Call me. XOXO_

Just underneath the text was a phone number. Was it hers? Either way, Jack put the card into his wallet for safekeeping. The last thing he'd want is for it to get wet. "She's a crafty one, I'll give her that. She'd be a great secret agent," he muttered to himself.

 

-

 

"Why aren't you at the restaurant? You were supposed to perform the swap." 

"I got caught up. I'm sorry."

"What happened, Agent Skye?"

She paused. "I was almost compromised."

"Compromised?" 

"There was another agent, he was very close to figuring out my identity."

"One of ours?"

"No."

"We'll deal with him promptly. Give us a description so we can find him."

"He's, uh... Tall, very tall. He's an... albino giraffe."

"An albino giraffe? That shouldn't be hard to find." 

Skye let out a sigh of relief. "Yes, it will be no problem."

"Continue your work, Agent Skye. Orders to follow soon." 

Skye took her fingers off her silver ring. Nobody expected it was also a microphone/speaker combined into one stealthy unit. Why did she lie to her commanding officer? Why did she give up her duty so easily? She sat in her cab, parked down a particularly dingy alley and thought about it all. 

There was something oddly charming about the world's worst secret agent. It was incredibly obvious to her that he was an enemy, but she just couldn't see him that way. Every time she laughed, it was genuine. Every time she smiled, it was real. Most of the time, she had to fake her cheery personality as a ruse. This time, it was genuine. 

_I can't remember the last time anyone made me feel like that_ , she thought to herself.

This was going to be a long and complicated relationship.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, Bukoya!


End file.
